Bangkok (the city that literally never sleeps...)

13 hard hour on a "luxury sleeper bus", which was actually a coach with an arty paint job and broken down chairs took us back to Bangkok at 6am Thursday morning. People were still out from the night before and without a watch orclock you'd easily be confused into thinking it was dusk not dawn! We spent the morning catching up on stolen sleep before heading off to wat arun, the Temple of Dawn. I'm a sucker for temples and this was particularly beautiful. The stone ruinds of the original wat were at the entrance and the newer buildings were scattered along the waterfront (these were still around 200 years old!) The steps to the top were steep but worth the extra effort, once up high the views were amazing. Straight ahead a rickety pier jutted out into the water allowing tourists and thai locals to pay the 6 baht for a boat ferry. Looking in the other direction sky scrapers and expensive looking corporate buildings spiked the skyline, looking more akin to New York than Bangkok.

The next day involved more temples, this time the Grand Palace. It was reminiscent of Aladdin's cave, the whole building decorated in traditional jewel mosaics and glinting in the light. In one area Buddhists were using flowers to sprinkle water onto their head, tapping three times and removing impurities from the body.

Our final day trip in Bangkok took us to Chatachuk Weekend Market, a market so big that it needed road names and a map to navigate it. You could buy almost anything and the most popular area seemed to be the pet section. Kittens, pups and rabbits were all displayed on little stalls and whilst we'd heard that you could buy illegal animals we didn't see anything too unusual.

Night time in Bangkok was a total contrast to the day. We stayed mostly on Khao San road in the evening and were quite happy to walk up and down taking it all in. Each step brought more street sellers, more tuk-tuk drivers and more people trying to pull you into their bar. The question "like in the hangover 2?" was constantly asked, "Where do we see the lady boys like in The Hangover 2?", "Where can we get a monkey, like in the Hangover 2?", and even, "Can I get the tattoo on my face, you know like in The Hangover 2?". And more often than not someone would tell you where and how much! We went to a mainly Thai club and stayed out till the early hours of the morning, probably appearing a little like the people we saw when we first arrived. Whilst it didn't steal my heart it took a big chunk out of my budget in return for 3 peaceful days and 2 wild wild nights.

We've just spent the week in Kanchanaburi and are preparing to head to Sangkhlaburi in the morning. My updates may become even more sparse over the next couple of weeks but watch out for a blackberry post - if I can work it out! Here's a little preview...



Keep smiling folks : ) x